BOOKS: Dilemma

Hungarian-born Arthur Koestler, once a Communist and still a Socialist,
wears what he calls an Old School tie that is "one of the most
distinguished . . . of the good old Continent." In Germany, the Old
School was named Dachau and Buchenwald; in Spain, it was Seville
(Koestler was imprisoned there for three months, under sentence of
death). There was also France's Le Vernet, Italy's Civitavecchia
prison. Inmates who have been lucky enough to escape death in the Old
School now wear a tie that is patterned of scars, ulcers, and a...